Albany, NY -- Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D,WF-Fresh Meadows) welcomed student journalists from Townsend Harris High School and Francis Lewis High School to Albany. The students visited the Capital as part of New Voices, an effort to protect the rights of student journalists.

“These young journalists are already creating valuable change on their school and local papers and it is in our best interest to protect their voices from censorship,” said Assemblywoman Nily Rozic. “As these students hone their skills, it’s incumbent upon us to ensure they are given the latitude they need as they pursue leads and expose truths.”

Brian Sweeney, Adviser to The Classic at Townsend Harris High School said: “It was a pleasure to witness the maturity, the insight, and the passion of the students who traveled to Albany to advocate for the Student Journalist Free Speech Act. I was enormously proud of them. We can all agree that there are few better educational experiences than that of taking part in our state’s legislative process, and I saw that firsthand on Tuesday. Our students, from multiple schools across the state, came away with a greater understanding of how our government works and how they can participate in it fully. Journalism education offers the same kind of real world engagement, yet administrative practices that censor students poison their civic education. No educational institution should undermine student efforts to participate in our democracy. We have a responsibility to act to protect student rights and promote an educational environment that embraces, rather than fears, student expression.”